It was the news which caused despair among commuters before Christmas, but now Chancellor Philip Hammond is telling Bristol not to feel let down by the delays in electrification of the Temple Meads track.

Instead the Conservative MP has said that passengers should focus on the benefits of the project as a whole, which he has promised will still be felt by those travelling to and from the city.

Once billed as the answer to all of Bristol’s connectivity problems, the Department for Transport announced that it was pausing the electrification of all but the mainline route between London Paddington and Cardiff Central in November.

The decision means that key stretches between Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway and Bath Spa will miss out on full electrification despite the fact that thousands of hours have been invested in to laying the groundwork for the upgrade.

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At best Bristol can hope to have an electrified track by 2024, however there is doubt that the project will ever conclude after Transport Secretary Chris Grayling admitted he was still weighing up whether to go ahead with the work at all.

But in an exclusive interview with the Bristol Post, Mr Hammond sought to assure Bristolians that the city would not be bypassed by electrification improvements, despite feeling like the poor relation.

The Chancellor said: “What matters is to people in this region is the frequency of services, the capacity on these services, the speed and reliability of those services and the quality on board – wifi in particular. The new trains will deliver all of those new benefits.

Great Western Railway's new hybrid Hitachi train

“I can understand why people might have got a little bit hung up about electric wires. But I was Transport Secretary for two years and believe me it is not about electric wires, it is about the quality and the speed, the reliability of service and what you get on board and people should wait and see the service that is delivered.

“The hybrid trains which are being built now in the North East of England to provide this new service are state of the art. They will deliver a fantastic improvement on what people are used to.”

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In fact, Mr Hammond claims that the money saved from the delay will actually benefit Bristol passengers.

“It’s leveraging the technology to get the maximum value out of our investment and to free up money that would have gone in to building overhead wires in to providing additional services and additional facilities on the network,” the Chancellor said.

He added: “Having some of the services off wire to begin with, using the hybrid technology of the trains to run the last few miles in to stations isn’t going to impact the quality of the service delivered in any way.”

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The Runnymede and Weybridge MP gave a typically diplomatic answer when asked whether the electrification delay and wider lack of central government funding for Bristol was due to the city’s Labour controlled council.

Instead he chose to focus on the upcoming Metro Mayor election on May 4, while simultaneously throwing the slightest of critiques towards Bristol Mayor, Marvin Rees.

Mr Hammond said: “The answer here is to get a regional mayor looking at the benefits and the interests of the whole regional economy to make sure that Bristol’s voice is heard loudly and clearly in London when these decisions are made.”